Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. 

— Winston Churchill

Welcome back to A Common Kitchen this week everyone.

If you’re anything like me, you are constantly busy. Whether it be with work, school, errands, or anything else, it can be easy to caught up in it all. And you can start to forget to do the things that you enjoy doing. Like exercising, painting, or baking (like me!) and I’ve noticed that if I don’t stop and do things that I love, I start to feel restless.

That is why I have loved A Common Kitchen. Every week I spend a few hours developing recipes, cooking or baking them, and taking photos of them. It’s something that I truly enjoy doing and I hope I always do it. I love that I create each recipe myself and then I get to share the photos with all of you.

I am currently trying to grow A Common Kitchen to reach more people and it has been a lot of work but I am so excited to watch the blog grow and reach new places. I’ve been doing the blog for over a year now and I have watched it grow slowly but steadily. I am so happy with how the blog is coming together and I can see from week to week, the improvements of the recipe developing, food styling, and food photography. I still have a long way to go but I here for the long run. I cannot wait to see all of the places that this blog takes me!

Now, on to this weeks recipe. Ruby Chocolate Pots De Crème. If you’ve never had a Pot De Crème before, shame on you. They are creamy, milky, sweet, silky, and delicious. A Pot De Crème is basically a Crème Brûlée with the hard sugar topping. It’s very easy to make and results in a simple, classy, and delicious dessert. You make a very simple custard and bake is slowly in the oven. You then chill it overnight and top with a some whipped cream and sprinkles (optional but come on, sprinkles!). These are the perfect summer dessert because they are served chilled and are extremely decadent but at the same time they are refreshing.

These Ruby Chocolate Pots De Crème are made with, as you might have guesses, Ruby Chocolate. If you’ve never heard of Ruby Chocolate before, it is naturally pink (or ruby) chocolate that has a slightly tangy and fruity taste. If you want to learn a little bit more about Ruby Chocolate you can read about it my recipe for Ruby Chocolate Chip Cookies where I go a little bit more in depth into it. It is a very interesting ingredients and if you can get your hands on it then I highly suggest trying this recipe or the one for my Ruby Chocolate Chip Cookies which both feature Ruby Chocolate as the main ingredient.

If you try this recipe or any other from A Common Kitchen, please share your photos, suggestions, thoughts, or comments with me. I would love to hear from you! Also, go follow me on Instagram and Pinterest (@acommonkitchen) to show the blog some love! Happy baking everyone!

Xx Bell

Ruby Chocolate Pots De Crème

Makes Four (5 Ounce) Individual Pots

Ingredients:

4 Egg Yolks, room temperature

⅓ Cup White Granulated Sugar

2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream

½ Vanilla Bean, split in half and seeds scraped out *See Note

½ Teaspoon Kosher Salt

4 Ounces Ruby Chocolate, roughly chopped if in bar-form *See Note

Special Equipment:

Four (5 Ounce) Jars (I used old Yoplait Oui Jars!)

Large Deep Roasting Pan or Dutch Oven *See Note

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300℉. Get a large roasting pan (or dutch oven) ready along with four (5 ounce) heat proof jars.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale and slightly fluffy, about 1 ½ minutes. Set aside.

In a medium sized saucepan, add the heavy cream, vanilla bean seeds and pod, and kosher salt and mix to combine. Turn the heat to medium-low and heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk is simmering (do NOT let it boil!!!). Remove the saucepan from the heat. Carefully remove the vanilla bean pod and discard. Add the Ruby Chocolate, ensuring that all of it is covered by the hot cream, and let sit for two minutes. After the two minutes, stir until the chocolate is evenly combined.

Place a strainer over a large measuring cup and carefully pour the hot cream through it into the cup to catch any lumps.

While stirring constantly, whisk in ½ cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture— this is called tempering. Repeat twice more and then add in the rest of the cream.

Gently pour the crème mixture into the individual jars, dividing it evenly between all of them.

Place the jars into the roasting pan or dutch oven. Slowly and carefully fill the roasting pan/dutch oven with boiling water three-quarters of the way up the jars— this is a water bath and will cook the pots de crème more evenly and gently.

Place the roasting pan/dutch oven in the oven and cook for 40-45 minutes or until the centers of each pot is just barely jiggly. Let cool to room temperature and then transfer the fridge and let refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.

Top with whipped cream, strawberries, ruby chocolate, sprinkles, etc!

Notes:

You can substitute for ½ Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

I talked about Ruby Chocolate in my Ruby Chocolate Chip Cookies post so go there to find out more about it and where to get it. However, you can definitely substitute it for white chocolate if you’d like!

You can use a roasting pan or dutch oven, whichever you prefer. Just make sure it’s high enough that you can pour water in it and it will come ¾’s of the way up the pots.